April 2nd, '03
This Passes for Normal

OK, I know I should be grateful. My husband eventually got his tzav shmoneh, but since the war alert seems to have died down, he was released from the army three days early. And while kids still have to bring their gas masks to school every day, the sight no longer fills me with a sense of doom... Instead, I'm irritated by the inconvenience. Did you ever try to get four kids out of the house, down four flights of stairs and into the car when each one of them is carrying a bookbag, a gasmask and an umbrella? Not a pretty sight, especially at 7:30 in the morning.

But what really kills me is the strike. Those of you who are not Israeli will probably not have heard of this (you have more pressing issues, I admit), but Israel's hyper-active labor union has chosen this particular time to set off an economy-wide string of work stoppages to protest draconian cut-backs recently passed in the Knesset.

There are arguments on both sides. Sure, given Israel's balance of payments and runaway spending (on little unexpected necessities like security fences designed to block a tolerable percentage of the suicide bombers) experts say that Israel is in real danger of Argentina-style economic collapse.

And sure, Israel has one of the highest gaps between rich and poor in the world, with an ever-growing underclass and some scandalously overpaid honchos (I believe there is no female equivalent for this term, but with Israel's male vs. female earning disparity, that's appropriate). There's rampant unemployment. Education is - by Western standards - lousy. Who in their right mind would want to go and fire 6,000 teachers - and thousands of other workers from other sectors - and make everything worse?

But oh, the strike reflex! This country goes on strike at the drop of a hat, and it always starts with the government offices. This includes the local municipalities, who are responsible for lots of services I generally don't need, and one I do, namely garbage collection. For the second time this year, my daughter's kindergarten will be functioning at reduced hours, or closed altogether (in the fall it was closed for a period of weeks). This is the early alert signal that Israel's country-wide labor union is gearing up for yet another show-down: there's garbage all over the street, and my five-year-old can't go to school. Does this make sense to you?

And I just got a call from a friend: the teachers' union is joining the party, and school for all my kids will begin at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

In this time of war and uncertainty, we should be grateful that everyone is healthy, we have jobs, and our lives are - basically - safe. But maybe it's the enormity of the danger out there that makes these little irritations loom so large. If I keep focusing on umbrellas, strikes and the price of Cheerios, I don't have to think about those life-and-death issues.

Did you know that a 250 gram box of Cheerios in this country costs more than a fancy tray of lox? I ask you, is this normal!?

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